Isles-Caps Rivalry Still Simmering From 2015

It's not the jerseys, but something about the Washington Capitals gets the New York Islanders seeing red.
Over the past five years, the Capitals have been one of the Islanders archrivals, a feud that boiled up with a seven-game series in 2015 playoffs and has not simmered, evidenced by the animosity in Wednesday's Game 1 and the physicality in Game 2.

It's a genuine rivalry, based off play and personalities, rather than laundry and logos. Ten Islanders on the current roster: Josh Bailey, Johnny Boychuk, Casey Cizikas, Cal Clutterbuck, Thomas Hickey, Nick Leddy, Anders Lee, Matt Martin, Scott Mayfield and Brock Nelson played in 2015. Six Capitals: Nick Backstrom, John Carlson, Braden Holtby, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Alex Ovechkin and Tom Wilson also remain.
"A lot of the usual suspects are still involved," Clutterbuck said. "Both teams have a lot of will and determination and ability to be physical. We're both going to try and wear each other down. Good. I love it. Let's go."

The Capitals won the 2015 series in seven games, skating to a 2-1 final in the deciding contest. The Isles have played five playoff series since, including two vs the Florida Panthers, but perhaps none have surpassed the physicality, or lingering bitterness of 2015. It was a memorable series for both sides, one Barry Trotz, then coach of the Capitals, called "vicious" and remembered the odd beverage being hurled from the stands at the Coliseum.
"That was the last year of the Coliseum and so it was physical, it was vicious and it was highly-emotional," Trotz said on Monday. "You had two teams who had the physical element. We were within a point of each other in the regular season and obvious the emotion of the last season of the Coliseum. All that being said, it was a highly competitive, emotional series. I expect a lot of the same. Two good teams that have similar traits."
Clutterbuck and Martin, neither of who are strangers to physical play, called 2015 the most demanding series they'd ever played in. While Game 1 in 2020 featured a combined 75 hits (39-36 Isles), Game 7 in 2015 featured 100 (54-46 Isles). The final hit count in the series was 317-313 Isles.
"That was - and still might be - the most physical series I've been a part of," Clutterbuck said. "It would be hard to top that one, especially with the atmosphere in both buildings and the way it was going down, the way our year had gone. It was kind of us asserting ourselves as a team that will be able to compete and Washington was highly-touted coming into that series. I think that was the spark that kind of ignited the flame."

The spark most fans remember was Tom Wilson's hit on Lubomir Visnovsky in Game 4, which knocked the veteran defenseman out of the series and capped his 14-year NHL career (though he played nine more games for Bratislava in the KHL). Wilson may be the second-biggest Washington villain to Isles fans after Dale Hunter, who blindsided Pierre Turgeon in 1993.
Justice for Lubo was more important in the next couple of seasons after the hit, but in 2020 the rivalry remains. Clutterbuck theorizes that the team's relative position in the standings over the past five years have given more meaning to the regular season games. The stakes are only raised with another postseason meeting.
"When you have two good teams that are deep and physical and talented playing each other as many times as we have over the last five years since then, that's what you get," Clutterbuck said. "It's a good rivalry."
The rivalry seems alive and well in 2020, with 40 penalty minutes in Game 1, including a fight between Anders Lee and Wilson, to set the tone. (The Isles 23 PIMs in Game 1 were their most in a playoff game since Game 6 in 2015.) Game 2 certainly had some edge as well with a combined 71 hits (38-34 Isles) and the Isles aren't expecting the temperature to go down even with a 2-0 series lead. Expect another rough-and-tumble affair when the teams reconvene on Sunday.